Stun: The Rewritten Arc
by Disbanded Crow
Summary: A ralts becomes the subject of a prophecy under Mew's tutelage to defeat the darkness! A retelling of the original Stun story.
1. Prologue & Destiny Calls

_**Author Note: Welcome to the Rewritten Arc! This story is going to be similar to my first Stun story, but with the knowledge of Unova, Kalos, and Alola, and probably slightly better written, with a bit of changes to the story overall. Kind of think of this as an alternate universe to that story; similar, yet its own thing.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I, of course, do not own Pokémon. If I did there'd be a definitive answer as to why Lieutenant Surge's sign reads, "The Lightning American."**_

A strong blizzard raged, causing snow to soar intensely and bringing visibility to nearly nothing. In the middle of this chaos sat two red legendary pokémon with their eyes closed, levitating off the ground in a state of meditation.

One of the two deoxys opened their eyes. " _Do you sense that?_ " Her telepathic voice rang out in her friend's head.

The other opened his eyes as well and looked to his friend. " _Yes. What do you think it is?_ "

The first deoxys shook her head. " _It feels… strange. I think it's coming toward us._ "

 _"Yes. It's nearly here._ " The male's form began to glow brightly as he changed to his defense form. The female did the same as she sensed the strange thing coming closer.

She floated next to her friend and looked out at the sea of white. Slowly, a mass of what appeared to be black smoke hovered into the clearing. It seemed almost shimmery as it paused and surveyed the two legendary pokémon.

" _What on earth_ is _that?_ " The girl asked. It was no pokémon or man-made thing that she had ever seen before. What was it doing in their solitude of arctic wilderness in northern Hoenn?

The male's eyes flashed for a moment as he observed the mass of inky smoke with his psychic abilities. " _I'm_ … _not sure. I don't think it's sentient._ "

Suddenly the dark cloud shuddered and let out an unholy screech. " _Well it definitely seems to be alive!_ "

The darkness surged forward towards the two. The female put up a psychic barrier instinctively, causing the cloud to slam into it. It let out a low growl and surrounded the forcefield, pushing hard enough to make it crack.

" _Alpha…_ " was all the male could get out before the inky mass of smoke managed to push past the barrier and surrounded his friend.

The dark mass vortexed around Alpha until it seeped into her through her skin. After the last of the smoke disappeared into her, she collapsed onto the ground.

" _Alpha, are you okay?!_ " He ran over to her and rolled her onto her back. He concentrated, focusing on her with his psychic abilities. " _Oh, sweet Arceus…._ "

Her eyes snapped open and focused on her friend. " _Omega…._ " She slowly levitated off the ground to an upright position.

Omega did not respond, he simply stared at his friend.

She stared at him for a moment, before her eyes narrowed menacingly. " _Sorry, buddy. Tenebrae needs you._ " A ball of light appeared in front of her and shot forward faster than Omega could react.

The powerful hyper beam attack caused him to scream in pain, burns marking his flesh. His form glowed as he changed to his speed form as quickly as possible. He zipped forward at breakneck speed, trying to get away from the creature that had possessed his friend.

His senses were going into overdrive with his panic, and he could sense his assailant not for off. He zig-zagged as wildly as he could, narrowly dodging hyper beam after hyper beam.

After the third attack, he cursed and flew forward as fast as he could. There was at least one thing he could do that Alpha couldn't….

He gathered a ball of black energy in his hands and shoved it forward, causing a portal to open up to the Distortion World. He slipped through it and the doorway slammed closed behind him.

Alpha stopped and stared at the space where her prey had escaped. " _Well that's a shame._ "

She turned and started towards Kanto. " _Well, at least I managed to get one of them._ "

 **Chapter 1 - Destiny Calls**

My name is Stun. I'm a gallade living on the hidden Eevee Island, off the coast of Sinnoh. Mesprit suggested that I catalogue my thoughts into this time flower for future generations. Hey, it worked out okay for that Aaron guy, so maybe getting my side of things out there will help clear my name too.

Pokémon generally fear me. They think I can't really be trusted due to my strength. That's why I have to live out amongst these eeveelutions, and to their credit, they've been pretty nice despite all the stories I've heard of them being unwelcoming to outsiders. Maybe because they actually know what happened.

Now, I'm not one to usually take advice from Mesprit, but why not? This could actually be good for me. I guess my story begins a while back….

"You're stupid, Julian. Gardevoir is the _best._ "

I smirked. "Only a _girl_ would think that, Freda. But gardevoir rely only on their psychic power, which makes them physically weak. Gallade use physical power _combined_ with psychic power, making _them_ the best pokémon!"

She and I were children back then, arguing over which of our evolutions was better. It was typical of a female ralts to think gardevoir was the better transformation, but I just knew that gallade were the best. I had envied my father and similar figures in our tribe who kept us safe during times of strife.

"You're just too dumb to know that a gardevoir could _easily_ kick a gallade's butt, no doubt about it."

"Oh, yeah?!" I'd had enough of this. "Well, if they're so strong, how come it's always the _gallade_ who go off to war when we're in trouble?"

That shut her up. Tears in her eyes, she turned away and ran. I huffed in exasperation, but secretly I did feel bad for saying that. Like most gallade and gardevoir tribes, ours was a little sexist. The men were expected to fight in battles while the woman were supposed to stay and look after the young.

With a bit of focus, I was able to concentrate and teleport back to my cave.

"Hey, dad," I called, walking into the cool darkness. I could sense him inside, though I couldn't see him with my physical eyes.

"Julian, hello! Keeping out of trouble?"

"'Course, dad. Like always."

My dad was a kind gallade. In our tribe, when a ralts is born, they check to see which sex we are, and then have us live with whichever parent corresponds to that. I was a male, so I lived with my father. I don't think I've ever met my mother.

"So," my father continued, "you're about to evolve, right? Should we do anything special?"

"Can we go see a legendary pokémon?"

My dad pursed his lips. He didn't like to take me to go see legendaries because I was still a boy and it was supposed to be dangerous. After a few moments, my dad finally sighed. "Well, I suppose. But you're going to have to stay next to me at all times. Also, I want you to promise me something."

"What?"

"I don't want you to rush into evolving into a gallade like I did. I want your psychic powers to mature and develop before you evolve. I didn't wait, and these days I can barely teleport."

"Sure, dad. I can do that."

"Great. We'll travel and go see Mew once you evolve."

I smiled. "Awesome!"

* * *

The next morning I woke up and walked out of my cave, temporarily blinded by the morning sun. I groaned as I stretched and looked around. I could see the openings to other caves; other families not yet awake to start the day. There was a sudden rustling to my left and I turned to see a gallade walk out of the bushes.

"Hello!" I exclaimed with a smile. I didn't recognize him, but I figured he must belong to my tribe. Every gallade I had ever seen acted with chivalry, so I had no reason to expect this to be any different.

His eyes met mine, and I noticed that something was… off about him. I could sense some sort of darkness emanating off of him. Before I could say anything, he raised his arm and brought it down quickly, using a slash attack to open my chest. My blood went everywhere, staining the grass around me.

"What-" I managed to exclaim before I lost consciousness.

Several times I've tried to remember what happened that day, but I never could. When I came to I was a kirlia, looking down at the unconscious gallade that had attacked me. I felt… powerful. Certainly more powerful than I ever had before. I could sense my surroundings more clearly. I sensed my dad waking up and stepping out of our cave.

"Julian? What was that noise?" After his eyes had adjusted to the light, he looked down at me with surprise. "You've evolved?" He then looked at the unconscious gallade and the pool of my blood in shock. "What happened here?!"

"This gallade attacked me." I looked down at my chest, which had healed itself during evolution. "He sliced open my chest. Next thing I knew, I was a kirlia and he was unconscious."

My dad crouched down and inspected the other gallade. "Hm… he must have suffered a mental attack, I suppose, since he has no wounds…. Perhaps a psychic attack? But... how could a newly evolved kirlia have produced a psychic attack so powerful it knocked out a grown gallade...?" He glanced at me with confusion. "Let me alert the elders; they'll want to take a look at this." He picked up the unconscious gallade and took him away.

After a few moments of inspecting my new body and abilities, my dad came back. "Well! While the elders are looking into what happened, and since you're a kirlia now, I guess today I'll take you to see the wise and powerful Mew! It's going to be a great experience, I'm sure. I need you to teleport us to the Kanto region, to a place called 'Lavender Town'."

I nodded and closed my eyes, concentrating on my psychic energy. My dad touched my shoulder, and suddenly we were standing outside a huge building.

"Ah..." my dad murmured, craning his neck to look up at the top of the old tower, "I've heard rumors about this place. This is called 'Lavender Tower'; it belongs to a whole bunch of gastly and haunter. Ghost pokémon."

"What are those?"

"Ah, right, you've never seen a ghost pokémon before. Ghost pokémon are… well, like ghosts." His gaze moved from the tower to me. "I know you think highly of gallade, but in truth, gardevoir are probably a bit better suited at battling ghost pokémon. Our physical attacks just can't touch them." He looked back at the tower. "I've heard rumors that Mew is living at the top of this tower. That's why I had you teleport us here."

"Gotcha. Can we just teleport to the top?"

My dad shook his head. "Can't you sense that?"

I tilted my head and focused. I could feel a powerful energy towards the top of the tower.

"Mew lives up there," my dad continued, "his psychic energy is so powerful that it would negate most psychic attacks. Besides, we'll have more of an adventure this way." He walked through the door and I followed closely behind. As soon as I walked into the dusty abandoned tower, my sixth sense started going haywire. I could sense many invisible beings here.

"Be careful," my dad whispered, "Make sure you don't attack unless you are attacked first." He started walking up the first flight of stairs, but immediately flew backwards after being shot with a black beam of energy. There was muffled laughter and two pokémon that looked like balls of dark gas appeared.

"Heh heh heh," one of them chuckled, preparing another attack.

"Gastly," my dad growled. "Julian! Let's dispose of these ghosts."

I concentrated my psychic energy and multiple multi-colored leaves appeared, hanging in mid-air. With a thought, the leaves shot forward, slashing through one of the gastlys. The gastly that had been hit screamed and dissipated into thin air.

The second one was about to retaliate when a voice sounded out. "Not making trouble again, are we?"

The gastly turned to see a gardevoir slowly floating down the staircase. "O-oh! Master! I-I'm sorry, we didn't mean them any harm."

The gardevoir crossed her arms and looked at the ghost skeptically. "Of course not. But you should be apologizing to _them_ , not me."

The gastly turned back to us with a worried expression on his face. "S-sorry," he mumbled. He turned back to the gardevoir, who dismissed him with a nod, and disappeared.

After he had gone, the gardevoir turned to my father and I. "I apologize for those two's behavior. The ghost pokémon have actually been rather anxious lately."

My father nodded and bowed to her. "Thank you for helping us, madam. We have come to see the legendary Mew. Do you know where we can find him?"

The gardevoir smiled. "Actually, Mew is a _her_. And yes." The gardevoir's form suddenly glowed and she transformed into Mew. "How can I help you two?"

My father gulped and looked up at the floating Mew with adoration in his eyes. "It is an honor to meet the Uncapturable Mew."

Mew nodded. "Thank you, you're too kind." There was a sort of glee in her eyes at having been recognized.

I stepped forward. "My name is Julian. If I may ask, why do you live here, in this place full of ghost pokémon?"

Mew turned her eyes on me, studying me. I could almost feel her examining me with her psychic gaze. "Ah, a young kirlia. You seem almost… familiar…." She tilted her head in wonder. "I sense a power that rivals even mine." Then, she blinked at my question. "Why _not_ live here, young one? The ghost pokémon aren't so bad. Humans tend to stay away because of their fear of ghosts. I think it's perfect."

She studied me for a moment longer with that strange curiosity in her eyes, then turned to my dad. "Sir, if I may ask, I would like to take your son as my apprentice."

My dad's eyes widened. "Really? Your apprentice? Why?"

"As I said before, your son possesses a great power within him. I believe that I have seen your son coming in a vision, a sort of prophecy that I had long ago."

"What kind of prophecy? What would you be teaching him?"

"Well, if I'm right, your son shall have a glorious future ahead of him. He may even come to save the world. As for your second question, I would teach him to better control his power, as well as use his psychic abilities to wield my greatest strength - the ability to transform."

My dad gasped in surprise. "Y-you think his power is that great?"

"I do."

My dad turned to me, looking at me differently. "Well... Um, I suppose I'll leave it up to you, Julian."

I looked at Mew and nodded. "I'd like to be taught by Mew."

Mew clapped her paws. "Excellent! You and I will have a lot of fun, meeting other legendaries, going on adventures... but of course, there will also be a lot of work. We shall begin immediately!"

My dad placed his hand on my shoulder. "Alright, son. I'll leave you with her. Learn well, and remember what I said about letting your powers mature before evolving. Good luck." I nodded in response, and he teleported away.

"So, your name's Julian, huh?" Mew asked after my father had left. I nodded in response. "Well, Julian, it's wonderful to meet you. I'm sure we're going to have a blast!" She crossed her arms and sized me up. "How well do you know me?"

"Well, I know that you're known as the Uncapturable Mew, since humans consider you to be a mirage. And I know that you created all pokémon."

"Pretty much," Mew replied. "After Dialga and Palkia created the earth, Arceus created me to fill it with life. I've been held responsible with keeping everything in balance since then. I've had many students, but I suspect you'll be one of the most important." I didn't know how to respond, so after a beat of silence, Mew clapped her paws. "Now! Let's not dilly-dally, I say we should begin your training by walking to Celadon City."

"Celadon City? …Master?"

Mew grinned. "Ooh, I like the 'master' part, keep that up. But yes, Celadon City. Although it's the most densely populated human city in Kanto, there's a pokémon located there that I'd like you to meet. When you gain the ability to transform, you'll only be able to change into pokémon that you've seen before, so we should expose you to as many pokémon as possible."

"You... you really think I'll be able to transform?"

"Sure I do! You've got enough potential psychic energy inside you, and it's just a matter of controlling it all. Here, put these on." Mew waved her paw, and weighted clothes flew down the steps behind her and landed in a heap in front of me. I shoved them on, and felt about thirty pounds heavier. Walking was going to be a huge battle.

"After a couple of weeks wearing these, your body should become stronger. Now let's go!" Mew transformed into a ralts and ran out the door, while I struggled to keep up.


	2. First Lesson in Transforming

"What... what are those, master?" I asked, huffing through the weight on my shoulders, chest, and back. I was pointing towards a flock of small bird-like pokémon that were pecking at seeds on the ground.

"Those are pidgey, they're pretty much the most common pokémon in Kanto. Where are you from?"

"Sinnoh," I replied, studying the pidgey. "Master, when do you think I'll be able to transform?"

Mew glanced at me, and I could feel her sensing my psychic energy. "Baby steps, Julian, I don't want to give you too much at once. I think that once you have a slightly better grip on your psychic abilities, I'll teach you how to transform."

I looked straight ahead. "Alright."

There was a rustle in the bushes and a rat pokémon leaped out with a seed in its mouth. "What was that?"

"Rattata. The second-most common pokémon in Kanto."

"Oh." I watched it scurry away. "What kind of pokémon are we going to see in Celadon?"

"A rather special one, actually. It's called porygon. Do you know about porygon?" I shook my head. "Porygon, and its evolutionary line, are some of the very few man-made pokémon. It's basically a virtual-reality creation, able to enter cyber-space."

"Err… Cyber-space? Virtual reality?"

Mew chuckled. "Well... it has something to do with man-made machines... to be honest, I'm not really sure how to explain it. Just know that it's a useful form to have." Mew looked to the sky. "Anyway, it's getting dark. Let's set up camp here for the night." I nodded and plopped down. "First, I want you to use your psychic energy to make a tent."

I nodded and closed my eyes. I concentrated my power, and suddenly the bushes around me were pulled out of the ground and assembled into a makeshift shelter.

"Hey, not bad."

I smiled and thanked her. We laid down underneath the tent and quickly fell asleep. Mew transformed into a rattata before settling down.

* * *

" _Hellooooo?_ " A male voice rang out in my head, causing me to stir in my sleep. " _Wakey, wakey, you two._ "

My eyes snapped open and I jolted up to see an abra floating off the ground, facing us. It was still nighttime, the moon being the only source of light. Mew jolted upright as well and stared at the abra, her rattata eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

" _Oh, good, you're awake._ " The abra's eyes were closed, of course, but he was very obviously facing Mew. " _Come on, now. Any self-respecting psychic pokémon can tell that you're not a rattata._ "

Mew narrowed her eyes. "What do you want?"

The abra floated gently to the ground and put his hand on his chest. " _My name's Sam. Nice to meet you both. I'm really sorry to wake you up, but I wanted to speak to you at night without anyone noticing._ "

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

Sam leaned his head back and yawned. " _I have come a long way to see the both of you. Traveling between regions isn't very easy, you know. Not to brag, but I'm actually very in tune with the going-ons of otherworldly forces. Simply put, I could feel that you were on the move, even from my cave in Kalos._ "

I glanced at Mew. "Does that mean that other pokémon are able to find us?"

She glanced back at me and shrugged. "Other psychic pokémon might notice that someone powerful is nearby, but not who we are specifically. And no one as far away as _Kalos_ should be able to sense us." Her form began to glow as she changed back to her natural body.

" _Yes, I'm sure it's rather shocking._ " Sam's tone almost sounded bored. " _Where I come from, I'm known as the Route 5 Oracle. I spend all of my time simply keeping tabs on the legendary pokémon and relaying messages._ "

"Aah," Mew murmured. "You're one of Arceus's oracles."

" _Mm hmm._ " Sam nodded. " _I made a deal with him a long time ago, he would enhance my powers and in exchange, I would relay the messages of the legendaries, try and help keep the balance, and I would give up my ability to evolve. Standard oracle deal._ "

"Right… so why did you come here?"

" _I've been noticing that there has been a sort of disturbance lately. Have you felt it?_ "

Mew's expression turned serious and she nodded.

" _Well, I've come to give you a gift. Now that you're out of that tower, I can finally deliver it. Ghosts always creep me out._ " He open one of his hands to reveal a grey diamond with a black swirl in the middle. The black swirl seemed to be constantly moving. A small hole was punched through the top and a thin leather band had been pulled through it and tied, creating a necklace.

The necklace floated out of Sam's hand and hung in midair in front of Mew. "What is this?"

" _The Alolan people call it 'Mewnium Z',_ " Sam replied. " _It's supposed to enhance your psychic attacks greatly._ "

"Strange…" Mew muttered, staring at the swirls in the gem. "It's really giving off a strange sort of power. I wonder why I've never heard of it before. How did you get it?"

" _I told you, I'm an oracle. Arceus basically told me where it was and I got it._ "

"Really? Was it that easy?" I asked, finally speaking up.

" _Well, no,_ " Sam mused, tilting his head in thought. " _Even though I knew the general area, it was actually pretty well hidden and guarded. I had to recruit some help from a few other oracles. But anyway, now that I've delivered to you the Mewnium Z, I have a few more stops to make._ "

"Like where?" Mew asked, slipping the her head through the necklace.

" _I have some other items to deliver to some other legendaries. Mewtwo, Latias, Latios, Diancie… probably a few others. The upcoming months are going to be quite interesting, I'm sure. We'll need all the help we can get._ "

Mew nodded. "Thank you for delivering this to me."

Sam shrugged. " _Hey, that's my job._ " With that, he teleported away with a bright flash of light.

The moment he disappeared, my vision began to darken. "Mew, what-"

* * *

I was standing in a snowy place I'd never seen before, looking at a strange pokémon that radiated pure psychic energy, similarly to Mew. It was tall and colored red and blue.

" _Well,_ " her voice rang in my mind, " _at least I managed to get one of them._ "

She then flew towards me and _through_ me extremely fast. As she passed through, I felt a dark and cold presence touch my very soul.

* * *

I gasped for air and found myself back in front of the rickety shelter I had made, standing next to Mew.

"Julian? What was that?"

"I think… I think I saw something."

Mew tilted her head. "You did? What did you see?"

"I saw... a strange pokémon... sort of tall, red and blue. She came at me and flew through me. She said something about 'getting' one of them."

"Really? You had some sort of vision?"

"I'm not sure... it really felt real."

Mew looked away, troubled. "This is some really strange timing, it's all happening really fast."

"What?"

Mew hesitated. "Sam mentioned that there have been some recent disturbances. There have been surges of a strange darkness popping up randomly throughout the world, infecting other pokémon. Even legendaries aren't safe."

I tilted my head. "Do you know what's causing it?"

Mew shook her head. "Unfortunately not, no." Mew thought for a moment, then declared, "Well! Seems we're going to have to get our butts in gear! Forget what I said yesterday about you needing to control your psychic abilities more, I say we give you the first lesson in transforming now."

I turned to face her, stumbling because of the weights on my chest. "Really? You think I can do it?"

"Well, you're gonna have to! Your vision happening right after an oracle showing up must have been a sign, and we don't really have too much time before things get _really_ bad." She floated in front of me and put her paws on my shoulders. "Alright, now. I'm going to need you to use all of your psychic energy for this. Get deep down. I want you to transform into a pidgey."

I nodded, and then closed my eyes, concentrating on all of my energy into transforming into one of the small birds I had seen the day before. Suddenly, I felt hot and my body starting to glow with a white light.

"That's it! You're doing it!"

I groaned and cried out in pain as all of my energy was being depleted. Suddenly, there was darkness.

When I woke up again it looked like it was around noon; I must have slept through the rest of the night and a good portion of the day. I looked up and saw Mew sitting around a small campfire.

She glanced at me, probably sensing my movement. "Oh, hey, you're awake! I gotta say, you didn't do too badly for your first try. I really didn't expect anything more of you." I looked at myself and saw that my skin was slightly brownish and I had a few feathers here and there. I had a skull-splitting headache. "Go ahead and try to transform again, maybe it'll be a bit easier the second time around."

I nodded and concentrated on my energy. I felt myself growing hot again and after a few moments, I opened my eyes to see that I had a beak where my mouth used to be. My headache was getting even worse.

"Okay, doing pretty good," Mew responded, looking me up and down. "At least you didn't pass out this time." She placed a paw on her forehead and her eyes glowed with blue energy. I could feel my energy being restored, the pain toning down to a dull throbbing. "Try one more time."

I focused all of the energy Mew had just given me, and followed through until I opened my eyes as a pidgey.

"Great job!" Mew exclaimed with glee. "I knew you were special the first time I laid eyes on you! I remember when I first tried to transform, I fainted about three times before getting it right."

I chirped excitedly. My headache was still pounding, but being a bird was almost enough of a thrill to allow me to ignore it.

"Alright," Mew continued, "it should start getting easier from here on out. Now that I've seen that you can do it, transform back and we'll head towards Cerulean City."

"We're changing course?"

"Yup. Unfortunately we're going to have to skip Celadon for now. The vision you had has me worried; I want to check on all of the legendaries to make sure they haven't been taken over. It will be difficult to teleport there because of Mewtwo's psychic energy, but I figure us flying there will be good practice. Have you seen any bird pokémon before? Besides pidgey, I mean."

I nodded. "I've seen two, starly and staravia. I've heard that staravia evolve too, but I've never seen it."

Mew nodded. She placed her paw back on my forehead and lent me more of her power. "Okay, try to transform into staravia. That'll be faster than pidgey, at least."

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the staravia I had seen when I was younger. After a little bit, the transformation was complete and I felt completely drained.

"Excellent! A few more tries and you're really going to start getting the hang of it!" Mew exclaimed happily. Mew's form glowed and she became a staravia as well.

I could fly! It was extremely invigorating, being able to fly above the clouds, looking down at the puny humans and other pokémon below. I laughed and looked forward, following closely behind Mew.

Mew looked down and yelled back, "Here we are! Descend slowly!" I pointed my body downwards and flew down to the ground, landing next to Mew. "Okay, good. First transform back to yourself, and then we'll rest for a bit, transform again, and enter the cave."

I looked to my left and saw a huge cave. I nodded and reverted back to my normal form, which I found to be way easier than trying to become something different. The weights were still strapped to my chest, but I was starting to get a bit more used to them. Feeling completely devoid of mental energy, I sat down and closed my eyes and meditated. I tried to bring back my psychic abilities, but it felt like I was trying to convince a hippopotas to use a water gun attack.

Mew approached me and placed her hand on my head. "Here, let me give you a little nudge, maybe that'll help." All of a sudden I felt Mew empty a ton of psychic energy into my brain. The feeling was almost overwhelming. "How's that?" Mew continued. "Feeling better?"

I opened my eyes, looking around. It felt as if my senses were in overdrive; I could sense a bunch of fish pokémon in the water to my left and I could feel a strong presence emanating from the cave.

"Yes, master," I said hesitantly. I felt stronger than I ever had before, but it was a somewhat strange feeling, using this borrowed energy. "I think I can transform again."

Mew grinned. "Okay, let's give it a shot!" Mew looked to the water and her eyes flashed with a blue energy. A water pokémon flew out of the water and fell to the ground, flopping madly. "You've probably seen one of these before, they're kind of everywhere. But in case you haven't, this is a magikarp. Go ahead and transform into it."

I concentrated on the magikarp as I started the transformation. After a few moments, I found myself flopping around as madly as the original. Mew nodded with satisfaction, threw the original magikarp back into the water, and transformed into a humanoid, blue creature.

"I've become a golduck," she explained, "they're good for walking around _and_ swimming." I wanted to ask her why she didn't just transform into a golduck first and let me do the same, but I couldn't quite figure out how to speak properly with this weird fish mouth. She picked me up and we walked into the cave. The cave was dark, damp, and cold. After walking a couple of feet, we reached a body of water.

"Mewtwo's here somewhere. Just follow me."

She threw me into the water, and then jumped in herself, swimming away.


	3. Articuno Unlocks My Evolution

_Author Note: I hope everyone's enjoying! Make sure to review if you are or if you have any suggestions! To be clear, the Zapdos scene is inspired by chapter 21 of Gancena's story "The Captain of the Virtual Console." I thought how she portrayed Zapdos was amazing, so I decided to change the Zapdos in this universe to be similar._

I tried to keep up, but it was quite obvious that her golduck form was a much more powerful swimmer. Luckily, I was still able to sense the huge, foreboding psychic energy that I had felt outside of the cave to help guide me.

Eventually we fell through a huge hole, landing on solid rock, which I'm sure would have hurt a lot more if I had been in my normal form. Maybe magikarp just don't feel that much pain? I looked around with my weak fish eyes and managed to make out the form of the tall white and purple pokémon that was giving off the strong psychic aura. He was standing a couple of feet away with his eyes closed. Mew's form glowed as she transformed back into herself.

" _Ah, I thought I could sense you, Mew,_ " the pokémon said telepathically without opening his eyes.

"Hello Mewtwo. How've you been?"

Mewtwo finally opened his eyes and focused on Mew. " _You know I hate small talk, Mew. Why have you come?_ "

I closed my eyes and transformed back into myself.

" _Oh, what's this?_ " Mewtwo asked in a playful voice. " _Mew, I didn't know you were taking on students right now. Interesting, a transforming kirlia_."

Mew glanced at me and turned back to Mewtwo. "Mewtwo, we need your help. Darkness has been taking over our world."

" _Yes, I know. I can sense it, too, even from here._ "

Mew nodded, a serious expression on her face. "Then you know that we need you, Mewtwo. With the help of all the legendaries, we can rid the world of this darkness."

Mewtwo was slow to answer. " _...If you manage to convince the legendaries who haven't already been taken over, then I will help. Do you know who's been taken so far?_ "

Mew nodded. "We believe Deoxys has been taken over."

" _Deoxys? Do you know which one?_ "

Mew glanced at me again. "You said the Deoxys in your vision was a _she_ , right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she sounded female."

"Probably Alpha, then," Mew answered.

" _What a pity; I always liked her. I've actually had a vision just recently that Celebi has been taken as well._ "

Mew looked extremely sad. "Oh no, poor Celebi…."

" _Yes, it would appear that difficult times are ahead._ " Mewtwo crossed his arms. Then his eyes caught the sparkling stone around Mew's neck. " _Oh, were you visited by the abra who calls himself Sam as well?_ "

Mew grabbed the Mewnium Z and examined it. "I was, yeah. Was he just here?"

He nodded in response. " _He actually just left moments before you'd arrived. I'm not quite sure how he was able to so easily teleport in and out of here…_ " a grey, perfectly spherical stone floated from behind him and stopped between the three of us, " _...but he left this with me._ " Similarly to Mew's crystal, this stone had swirls and spirals that were constantly shifting. It, too, gave off a strange sort of power. " _According to the abra, the humans call this 'Mewtwonite Y', for some reason. It's a terribly unclever name. Apparently it will allow me to change forms, though I'm not sure how. I've not been able to test it just yet. Does your gem do something similar?_ "

"It's supposed to make my attacks stronger. I haven't tested mine out either."

Mewtwo's eyes glinted in response. " _Then perhaps once this is over, we can have a battle see which of ours is better?_ "

Mew's mouth twisted into a playful grin. "I'd like that, just like old times."

Mewtwo's smirk was more serious and confident. " _I can't wait. I'll go ahead and travel to Johto and see how the legendaries there are faring._ "

"Sounds great." With that, Mewtwo teleported away with a flash.

Mew turned towards me with a relieved smile. "Phew. I gotta say, I thought it'd be _way_ more difficult to convince him than that. But alright, we're going to go ahead and visit Zapdos now."

"Who?"

"You've never heard of Zapdos?" I shook my head. "Honestly, what I know you're from Sinnoh, but everyone should know who the legendaries are." She shook her head in disappointment. "Zapdos is a legendary bird pokémon who specializes in electrical attacks, he's known as the Electric Titan." Mew placed her paw on my head, and suddenly we were standing outside a human-made structure.

"Um... master...?"

"Humans don't actually live here." Mew interrupted, as if reading my mind. For all I knew, she very well could have been. "They abandoned this place quite a long time ago. Eventually, electric pokémon started showing up, and Zapdos decided to make it his home."

Mew floated to the door, which opened automatically. I followed closely behind. As soon as I walked through the door, every cell in my body felt like it was energized. The presence of all the electric pokémon was causing a powerful tingling feeling on my skin. Mew closed her eyes, probably trying to sense Zapdos's location.

I could hear a sort of dull thumping noise, almost like a heartbeat. Even the floor seemed to vibrate alone with it. "What's that sound?"

Mew's eyes snapped open. Rather than answer me, she started floating forward. "This way." I followed her down a long hallway and approached a metal door. I suddenly found it hard to breathe, and the air smelled strongly of ozone. The tingling feeling I had felt when I first entered was multiplied tenfold here and the thumping noise was really loud now.

Mew took in a sharp breath. "It's okay. I feel it, too. He's right behind this door."

I started to reach out and push on the door, but Mew hissed and grabbed my arm. "Don't!" I pulled my hand back quickly. "That door is metal. If you touch it, you'll be reduced to ash."

Mew turned her eyes on the door. After a burst of psychic energy, the door swung open, along with a blast of music.

Electric pokémon were everywhere, filling up the room completely. Towards the back there was a voltorb, magneton, and raichu standing on a makeshift metal stage (well, okay, the magneton was floating, of course). Together they were using small electric attacks on strange devices, banging against metal drums, and smashing metal plates together to create some sort of loud electronic music. In front of this stage was a huge crowd, cheering and jumping up and down to the beat.

"Zapdos was always known for his parties!" Mew shouted over the music.

She pointed up and I followed it to see what must have been Zapdos himself, a huge, spiky yellow-and-black bird. He was bobbing his head to the music, but quickly spotted Mew's pink form amongst the mostly-yellow crowd.

"GUYS!" Zapdos shouted as loud as he could, immediately causing the rave to grind to a halt. Every single pokémon looked up at him. "Important legendary stuff going on right now. Need you guys to get outta here for a bit."

There was a loud, collective, "aaaaawww" from the group, who turned and shuffled out of the door behind us.

Once the room was cleared, Zapdos jumped down from the rafters. "Mew! Girl, what's it been, like a hundred years?"

I thought that might have been an exaggeration, but Mew grinned. "About that long, Zapdos! I see you still like your parties!"

"'Course! Partying never hurt no one! You should come and party with us some time like we used to!"

Mew chuckled. "Yeah, we should do that soon. But actually I'm here on official business right now."

"I'm sure." He shook his head, but with a smile on his face. "Good ol' Mew, never likes to have fun any more. Why else would you show up after a century?" Then he finally noticed me. "Hey, who's the kirlia with the funny clothes?"

Mew placed a paw on my head. "This is Julian, he's my latest apprentice."

"Cool, nice to meet ya, Julian. Maybe someday _you_ can convince your master here to come party with us," he said with a wink.

"Maybe someday." I grinned, and Mew cleared her throat.

" _Anyway,_ Zapdos, have you heard anything about the darkness that's been popping up?"

At that, the playful light in his eyes finally dimmed and his expression grew serious. "Actually, yes, the stuff has been here quite a few times already. I'd estimate about twenty of my followers have been possessed by it. Apparently, this darkness stuff is attracted to psychic and electrical energy."

"Excuse me," I spoke up. "Twenty of your followers have been taken, and you're here having a huge party?"

Mew rolled her eyes and murmured, "If you knew him, you'd know that makes perfect sense."

Zapdos ignored her comment and turned his head to look at me full on, an almost angry glimmer in his eyes. "Hey, man, don't judge me. It provides a good distraction and my guys here are always ready whenever the stuff pops up again."

I lowered my gaze. "Oh… sorry, I didn't mean to offend."

Zapdos sniffed and looked away as well. "But hey, maybe you're right. Maybe this isn't the time for parties. Probably more of a time for action."

Mew nodded. "Yes, I actually came to see if you would be willing to join us to fight this darkness."

Zapdos nodded. "Sure thing. Just let me know where to be and when, and me and my guys will be there to fight."

Mew smiled. "Awesome, I'm glad to have you on our side. After all of this is done, I promise to join in your next rave."

That seemed to perk him up. "Dude, you better, now that you said that! It'll be one heck of a celebration!"

Mew laughed in response and replied, "Well, we'll let you get back to it. We're going to speak with the others, and I'll let you know once we need you."

He nodded. "Sounds good. I'll be waiting." Mew started to turn away, but he spoke up again, "Oh, by the way, don't go trying to recruit Moltres. She's actually been possessed as well. She showed up here a couple of days ago with a bunch of darkness following her, trying to destroy us."

Mew nodded. "Thanks for letting us know." As we left the room, Zapdos shouted, "My dudes! Party time's over, war council time begins _now_!"

In the next moment Mew and I were standing outside on the shore of what was called the "Seafoam Islands".

"When we get in there," Mew was explaining, "it'll be _extremely_ cold. We'll have to transform into fire pokémon to resist being completely frozen." Mew turned to me. "Have you seen any fire pokémon before?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I've seen a couple in Sinnoh."

Mew nodded back and turned back to the cave. "Good. Do you feel up to transforming?"

"I think so." I closed my eyes concentrated, and felt my form begin to glow. After a couple of minutes, I opened them again as a monferno. I looked at Mew, who had transformed into a red humanoid lizard pokémon.

"Wow, did you see? I actually did it this time without needing to borrow energy from you."

Mew grinned and nodded. "Exactly, you're getting there! Just takes practice. I've actually become a Charmeleon, myself. Let's head on in."

Once I walked into the cave, I was bombarded with the coldest breeze I had ever felt, even though I was a fire pokémon. Even the winters I had spent in Sinnoh was nothing compared to the chill of this cave.

"M-master… w-what pokémon are w-we going to see th-this time?" I asked through chattering teeth.

Mew was shivering also, but spoke with an unfaltering voice, "We're here to see Articuno, the legendary bird pokémon. She's known as the Titan of Ice, she's Zapdos's brother. I don't think the darkness could have gotten to her, nothing much could survive in here."

"Is s-she a partier l-like her brother?"

Mew snickered. "No, she's _way_ more serious. I like her a lot though, she's pretty nice."

I looked forward. Though the flame on our tails lit up the cave, there wasn't much to see, just ice and rocks. Eventually we came across a raging river. Mew looked at the dark frothing water with a frown.

"We'll have to cross it."

"Cross it?!" I yelled, my voice echoing. "B-b-but master, we'll freeze to death!"

Mew gulped and stuck one of her paws in. She screeched in pain and pulled it out. "Yes... I fear so, Julian."

"C-couldn't you hold back the water with your power?"

Mew raised an eyebrow. "That much power could very well make me faint; that'd be asking a lot of me." Then she snapped her… claws. "I've got an idea! I'll just use my bubble!" Then she glanced at me. "Oh, wait. Julian would be stuck here. Hm..." Then she snapped her claws again. "Hey! Julian, do you know protect? Like, creating a forcefield?"

I shook my head. "I'm not at the right level to learn that yet."

Mew sighed. "Well, okay then, you'll have to stay close to me. C'mere." I stepped up to her, and she wrapped her lizard arms around me tightly. "Try not to move or squirm or anything, I don't wanna drop you and lose you to the river." She concentrated, and a pink bubble surrounded us. "Here we go!"

She jumped into the raging water and we were instantly swept away. Even though the bubble that surrounded us gave off some kind of faint warm glow, it was getting colder and colder. It rapidly became more frigid than it had been on land. I gasped in pain as the very air seemed to freeze, making it difficult to even breathe. I soon felt Mew float us out of the river and land back on solid ground.

Mew let the bubble fall away, but a thick layer of ice had formed, still keeping us trapped in an icy sphere. With a blast of psychic power, Mew caused the ice ball to crack in half and fly off in separate directions.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Mew grinned. I stepped back from her, and saw a giant blue bird pokémon with ice in her feathers perched in front of us. Mew changed back to her normal form with a flash of light, though I'm not sure how she didn't immediately regret it with the cold.

"Oh, hello, Mew," Articuno called with a pleasant, soothing voice. "How nice to see you, it's really been far too long since your last visit. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Mew shivered. "Well no offense, but your death trap of a cave isn't exactly inviting…. But we've come to inform you that a strange darkness has been spreading throughout the world, possessing and corrupting normal pokémon as well as legendaries. So far they've taken Alpha, Celebi, and Moltres, that we know of. I'm here to ask for your help to exterminate this darkness. Will you?"

Articuno tilted her head, as if thinking. "You know that I am kind, Mew. I have helped pokémon, as well as humans, who get lost in my icy cave, and you know that I cannot resist assisting."

Mew smiled. "Yeah, I didn't think you'd take too much convincing. It's good to have you on our team. I'll contact you as soon as we check on the other legendaries to make a plan."

Articuno smiled, then turned to me. "I've heard of you, even in the isolation of my cave. You are Mew's new apprentice, a male kirlia, are you not?"

I nodded.

"Being so distanced from the outside world, you might think that I don't get much news, but the wind carries all sorts of secrets." She smiled kindly. "I have here a Dawn Stone." Articuno gestured with her wing to a collection of shimmering rocks. "Would you like it?"

I looked at the stone, then glanced at Mew. "D-do you think I should, master?"

Mew thought for a moment. "Well, it would certainly help. Your psychic powers have matured much faster than even I expected, you even just now transformed without needing my assistance or passing out. And I suppose evolving would give you a slight increase in your psychic energy…." She shrugged. "Ah, what the heck. Yes, I think you should do it."

I adjusted the straps of my weights, which didn't feel so heavy anymore. "Alright, Articuno. I'll become a gallade."

I transformed back to my normal form and grasped the Dawn Stone. I could suddenly feel power flow into me from it as I felt myself evolving and growing stronger. After a brief moment, and a flash of white light, I had evolved into a gallade. I looked at the blades that were my arms and smiled.

I looked at Articuno and bowed. "I can't thank you enough, Articuno."

Articuno bowed her head in response. "You're quite welcome."

Mew turned to me and smiled. "Well, I guess we'd better get going, Articuno! It was nice to talk to you again."

Articuno nodded. "Goodbye. I'll wait to hear from you again."

Mew placed her paw on my back and suddenly we were standing near the opening of a giant cave. "Regirock lives in this cave." Mew explained, looking around. "But it's getting really dark. Let's go ahead and spend the night out here first."

I nodded and we set up camp.


	4. Putting the 'Ghost' in Ghost Pokémon

_Author Note: Hey guys, I hope everyone's enjoying the story so far! Make sure to review with any suggestions or constructive criticism!_

When I awoke, I felt better than I ever had. Being a gallade, along with the psychic training I had been doing, left me feeling like I was the strongest pokémon ever. When Mew woke up, we looked back to the cave.

"Alright, I believe it's time to meet Regirock, are you ready?"

"I guess so. What's he like?"

"Eh, he's okay," Mew replied, shrugging. "All of the regis are kind of, uh… I dunno, boring, I guess."

"Well that's just rude," a robotic voice called from within the cave.

We both jumped in surprise and turned to see a large creature made of rock emerge from the darkness. His face was composed of dots that glowed rhythmically with his speech. I was surprised that I hadn't been able to sense him.

"Oh! Regirock! Sorry about that, buddy, I didn't know you were right there." She smiled sheepishly.

It was kind of difficult to tell Regirock's emotion, since he didn't have any real facial features and his tone had no real inflection. "...Sure. Is there something that you need?"

"Um, yes," Mew's expression turned serious. "We were coming to ask for your assistance in an upcoming battle."

Regirock raised one of his arms to stop her. "I am not sure why you've come to me directly. You know that my siblings and I do not do anything without our master's consent."

Mew flinched. "I dunno, I was kind of hoping we could leave him out of this."

"Sorry." With that, he turned and retreated back to his cave, the opening magically shutting behind him.

Mew sighed. "Dangit, I was really hoping he'd just come along with us."

"Does that mean we have to talk to his master?" I asked. "Who's that?"

"Regigigas," she replied. "He's a huge pain to talk to. Come on, I'll show you what I mean." She placed a paw on my forehead, and we were suddenly standing in front of a temple in Snowpoint City. Mew's form flashed as she quickly transformed into a ralts before any humans could notice.

Not that there were many outside; the blustering blizzard was enough to keep even the hardiest of humans indoors. I shivered at the sudden drop in temperature.

Mew pointed to the temple's entrance. "He'll be in there, come on."

I followed Mew through the doorway and was faced with a completely barren room with a slick floor that was seemingly made of thick ice.

"There's a really complicated puzzle that would normally make it really difficult for most other pokémon and humans to get to him. But we can cheat a bit." Mew winked, and her form glowed as she transformed into a gastly. "We can become ghost pokémon and just float down to him."

"Oh, okay," I agreed, closing my eyes and concentrating. My body began to glow with a white light, but I actually found it a lot more difficult to transform. Granted, not that I was an expert to begin with, but this was way tougher. My concentration fell and when I opened my eyes, I saw that I had actually not changed at all.

"Oh, yeah, becoming a ghost is probably going to be a lot more difficult than becoming another pokémon with an actual body." Mew grinned and floated around me, leaving a gray smokey trail behind her. She came to a halt in front of my face. "I actually think I have a better idea that might make the transition easier in the future."

"What's that?" I asked as she glowed again and became bigger. When she stopped glowing, she seemed to be giving off a more powerful, dark aura.

"Do you recognize this pokémon?" Mew's voice was a lot deeper and ominous. I shook my head and response.

Mew raised her hands and began moving them near me, as if she was touching my aura. "I've become a dusknoir. They're a species of pokémon that are tasked with bringing souls to the afterlife." Her hands came to a stop in front of my face. "As such, they can do _this!_ " Her hands thrusted forward and slammed into my head, and suddenly darkness fell over my vision.

* * *

My eyes shot open suddenly to see that I was standing in the same icy room. But I no longer felt cold. "Mew, what-" I glanced down to see that I was hovering in midair, my body see through.

"Cool, isn't it?" Mew glowed as she changed back into a gastly. She grinned as she flew around me.

I looked around to see my lifeless corpse on the ground. It was extremely unnerving. "Did you… kill me?"

She floated to the body. "Eeeeh, kinda. But don't worry, you'll be just fine. I can put you back easily enough, we just gotta be kinda fast, otherwise you might start to decay and that'll just be a problem." If I still had a heart, I would have said that it dropped. Mew must have seen my expression because she quickly added, "But don't worry, it'll be a little while before that happens and talking to Regigigas shouldn't take any time at all! Follow me!"

She dove down through the ice, and I managed to rotate in the air and propel myself forward with my mind. It was almost like moving things telepathically, but quite a bit more disturbing.

I moved through the floor, then another, then another, until we were in a huge dark chamber with a huge statue in the middle. It was giving off a sort of light, otherwise it would have been completely pitch black down there.

"Here he is," Mew muttered, floating to the statue. "He kinda hibernates, like, at all times. Usually he'll only wake up if his servants are nearby, but I know a little trick." Mew transformed back into her regular form and her fist began to glow, preparing a mega punch attack. "Hey, Regigigas…." she drew her fist back and thrust it forward shouting, "TIME TO WAKE UP!"

The impact echoed throughout the chamber with a loud " _BOOM!"_ Mew slowly retracted her first to reveal a small crack at the top of the it. There was a few seconds of silence, but then its six eyes began to glow with different colors.

"Oowwwww…." he groaned, touching the top of its head where the crack was. "Mew? What the heck did you do that for?"

Mew shrugged. "Sorry, buddy. You should know better than to become a statue at all times if you don't want a rude awakening."

He huffed, continuing to rub the crack softly. "Rude." He lowered his hand slowly and crossed his arms. "To what do I owe this _lovely_ meeting?" His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"There's a problem. There've been outbreaks of this darkness stuff that has been infecting and possessing pokémon and we need your servants' help to defeat it."

Regigigas was silent for a moment. "Just them? You don't need me?"

Mew rolled her eyes. "If you wanted to help, that'd be really appreciated, but I figured you'd probably rather sleep."

There was a few more seconds of silence, then Regigigas grumbled, "You're right, I _would_ rather sleep."

Mew shook her head in disappointment. "I'm not surprised. Just tell your guys to help us and you can get back to it."

Regigigas's eyes flashed and he responded, "Okay, all done. I've sent 'em a message to help out."

"Good, thanks. We'll leave you alone now." Without even responding, his eyes became dull and colorless again as he stiffened back into a statue.

Mew rolled her eyes again and turned to me. "Oh well, at least he let us use his servants."

"But he's a legendary," I responded with frustration. "Shouldn't he feel obligated to help?"

She shrugged. "I would think that most of us legendaries should. But if he doesn't want to help I can't force him. Like I said before, I'm not surprised, he's always been like this." She transformed into a dusknoir again. "C'mon, follow me. I'll put you back in your body."

We floated back up through the floors until we reached the main chamber. Once we reached the top, Mew paused, glancing around.

"Uh oh. That isn't good."

I looked near the entrance, to see that my body was no longer there.


	5. Reuniting With my Body and an Old Friend

"What?!" I floated to the spot where I had last seen my body. "Where'd I go?!"

Mew shrugged. "I guess maybe some humans noticed a dead gallade near the entrance to their sacred temple and took it somewhere. In retrospect, maybe we should have hidden you better."

"Well, let's go find me before I get buried or something!"

"Right, it shouldn't be too hard to find you." Mew transformed into a gardevoir and closed her eyes in concentration. "Hmmm… yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a pair of humans that took you." She floated out of the entranceway and into the blizzard outside. "They went, ummm…" she pointed to a pair of glowing lights in the distance. "That way. I think you're in a car or something." The pair of lights began to fade away in the snow as it got farther away.

"Well let's go after them!"

Mew nodded in response and fluidly transformed into a gastly, becoming invisible. "Go!"

I flew forward, towards the pair of retreating lights. As we got closer, they revealed themselves to be a pair of headlights. Luckily they weren't driving very fast, considering the blizzard. I dove through the top of the car to see my body in the backseat with two humans, a man and a woman, in the front.

It was a weird feeling, because I had to keep floating forward in order to keep up with the inside of the car, otherwise I would have just sank through the back and been left behind. The humans, of course, didn't notice me. I guess I was pretty much a ghost to them. They were murmuring quietly amongst themselves about the dead pokémon they had found.

I suddenly was hit with the realization that Mew was invisible, and I didn't really have any access to my psychic abilities in order to sense whether or not she was nearby. "Mew? Are you here?"

"Of course," a voice whispered in my ear.

"What're we gonna do?"

"Just be calm. Once they stop I'll change into a dusknoir again and put you back in your body. Easy peasy."

Before I could respond, the male human in the front, who was driving, suddenly screamed, " _Shit!_ " and the car lurched to the side so abruptly that I flew through the side of it. I quickly turned around to see a small white blur fly through the air and land in a snow bank, and the car come to a crashing stop as it slammed into a huge boulder, ruining its front and causing my body to fly through the front windshield and land a bit of a distance away. I cringed.

Mew appeared beside me, dropping her invisibility. "Wow," was all she could get out. She turned, and looked at the white body that had landed nearby. "Umm…. I think they hit this gardevoir."

I finally looked away from the crash scene and floated to the gardevoir. She was halfway covered in snow, but what was visible was bloody with limbs at odd angles.

"She's still breathing, we can fix her." Mew transformed to her normal form and focused on the broken pokémon in front of her with a gravely serious expression on her face. She placed her hands above the gardevoir and closed her eyes. Her hands began to glow and she clenched her teeth. The light washed over the poor gardevoir and her wounds began to slowly close.

"Wow." If I had any breath, I would've been breathless. "What are you doing?"

"It's a move called heal pulse," she managed to say through her clenched teeth, "it requires immense concentration for me, so shush."

After a few moments of silence and glowy goodness, Mew was finally done. "Phew," she sighed and sank to the ground. "That took a lot out of me. C'mon, I should have just enough juice to get you back into your body."

She transformed back into a dusknoir and I followed her to my body. It didn't look too bad, it was just kinda cut up a bit from glass. "Sorry, I won't be able to heal you too. Let's just get you back in there." I nodded, and she placed her hand on my forehead, pushing me back into the corpse.

* * *

I gasped for air, shuddering at the cold. I felt sick and cold to my very core, and I ached from the cuts all over my body. I was pretty sure I had shards of glass stuck in my skin here and there. I pulled myself out of the snow and glanced up to see Mew hovering above me.

She groaned and glowed brightly as she changed back to her normal form. She collapsed on the ground in a heap.

"Julian, get us out of here, quickly. Before other humans show up." With that, she passed out. I nodded and picked her up with little difficulty. I was about to teleport away, but then I thought of the gardevoir.

I trudged through the snow to the unconscious pokémon and looked down at her. I studied her for a few moments. She seemed really familiar. I placed my hand on her forehead and teleported us back to the only place I could think of, back to my tribe.

Once we arrived, I was struck with the sudden change in temperature and collapsed, dropping Mew. Maybe I was a bit more hurt than I realized. I looked around, but was surprised to find that no one was around. It was starting to get late, but there should have been at least a few adults around. I noticed there were also gashes in trees and scorched ground here and there. Signs of battle showed all around us.

"Ugh…" I put my head in my hands and tried to concentrate, but my mind was too muddled to sense what had happened. "Wait…" I focused on the gardevoir that was still asleep to my right. I suddenly knew why she felt familiar.

"Freda!" I grabbed her shoulder and shook her gently. "Hey, wake up!"

Freda groaned and slowly opened her eyes. "Julian…? What? Where are we?"

"You recognize me?" I asked, suddenly feeling bad for not realizing who she was sooner. "Yeah, it's me. I managed to get us home."

"Home?!" She suddenly bolted upright, looking around frantically. "Is there darkness around here?!"

"I don't think so," I replied, feeling the area with my senses. Other than the distinct lack of other pokémon, nothing felt unusual. "Is that what happened here? You were attacked by darkness?"

She nodded, still scanning the area frantically. "Shortly after you left, darkness came and possessed almost everyone. We tried to fight, but we couldn't figure out how. It just fed on our psychic attacks and the gallades' blades just passed through."

A sense of dread fell over me. I mean, not that my clan was known for being super powerful or anything, but I hadn't expected the battle to be so one-sided. "What about my dad?"

"He was taken too," she finally stopped looking around frantically and settled her gaze on me. "I'm sorry, Julian, but he was possessed."

A sense of anger threatened to overwhelm me, but I pushed it down. I stood up and faced her. "I'll free him. Somehow. Right now, let's focus on you. How are you feeling? Why were you in Snowpoint City?"

Freda looked down at her unharmed body. "Actually, I feel fine. Why do I feel fine?"

I gestured to the snoring Mew. "Mew managed to save you. Without her, I'm pretty sure you would've died."

Freda glanced at Mew. "Wow… the Uncapturable Mew saved me. I'll have to thank her when she wakes up." She looked back to me. "When your dad came back from your trip, he was bragging about how you'd become Mew's student, so when the darkness came and it was obvious that we were going to lose against it, I fled north. Eventually, I could sense you and another, more powerful energy. I guess that was Mew." She glanced at the legendary again.

"I followed that feeling until I ended up in Snowpoint in the middle of a blizzard. But then it felt like… well, your energy became weird."

"Mew killed me for a little bit, yeah." I rubbed the back of my head with an embarrassed grin on my face.

Freda didn't really miss a beat, she just looked me up and down. "Well, you certainly _look_ like you could be a zombie. You'll have to give me the details later. But I was confused and continued trying to follow you, and I didn't notice the car until it was too late."

I looked at her gardevoir body. "That's pretty impressive that you were able to sense me from so far away, and was still able to do so even when my spirit left my body. And look, you've evolved! You must've been doing some training too, since I've been away, huh?." She blushed slightly and nodded.

She glanced back to the snoozing cat-like pokémon. "What's it been like, having Mew as a teacher?"

I grinned. "It's actually been really awesome. Aside from this last little bit where she killed me and shoved me back into my just-been-through-a-car-accident corpse. But I've actually been slowly learning how to transform, but I've met quite a few legendaries so far. I think I've already gotten pretty powerful."

"Wow!" Freda's eyes snapped back to me. "You can transform already?!"

"Heh, yeah, but it actually can take a lot out of me. I think I still have a ways to go."

Mew then groaned suddenly and grabbed her head. "Geeeez, what a headache," she mumbled. "I haven't felt this bad since I tried to stop Zekrom and Reshiram from fighting…. Ugh."

She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Freda and I. "Oh, hey, guys. What's going on?"

"Master, this is Freda," I pointed to my friend as Mew slowly pulled herself off the ground. "She's actually my best friend from my clan, that's why she was in Snowpoint, she was looking for us."

"Oh, cool, nice to meet you," Mew mumbled, still rubbing her forehead.

Freda bowed. "It's an honor to meet you, Mew."

Mew glanced around. "Ah, geez, the darkness got this place, didn't it?"

"How could you tell?" I asked. Were my senses not as good as they were?

"I can feel it, can't you? Even the plants here feel like they've been infected."

Freda nodded. "This was our home, before the darkness came. We didn't stand a chance."

Mew nodded thoughtfully and turned to look into my eyes. "Interesting that you can't sense it. I wonder if maybe you still haven't fully recovered from having your soul taken out and put back."

"Well, I mean, it's only been like ten minutes."

"Bah. Well, just keep an eye on it, I'm sure you'll be back to tip-top shape in no time." She then turned to Freda. "So, I suppose you'll want your friend here to come with us?"

"Err… well, I hadn't really thought about it, to be honest. But she doesn't really have anywhere else to go. Can she come with us?"

Mew sighed. "I dunno, Julian, I feel like she'd slow us down."

"Please, master? She won't be that much of a burden, I'm sure."

Mew grumbled to herself for a moment. "Her power isn't as great as yours, but it seems she isn't weak by any means…. She won't be able to transform, but maybe she could be useful." Mew paused for another moment. "Eh, sure, why not? She can come."

Freda and I grinned at the same time. "Thank you, master."

Mew yawned and exclaimed, "Well, it's getting late and I'm still super tired. I'm sure you are too, Julian. Let's camp here. Go ahead and set up a shelter."

I nodded and managed to pull bushes and twigs together to form a makeshift shelter, even if it was a bit shakier this time.

* * *

After a few minutes of lying there listening to Mew snoring, Freda asked, "Are you awake?"

Ugh, I really needed sleep. But I replied, "Yeah."

"You can really transform? Can you show me?"

Wordlessly, I sat up and stepped out of the shelter. I turned to face her, and she was now leaning on her elbows to watch me. I concentrated, and began to glow. It was _really_ difficult for me, but after a few moments I opened my eyes as an abra. I guess I really needed some rest.

"Wow… that's so cool," she exclaimed as she watched me change back.

I huffed in exasperation and sat on the ground. "So... what happened to your family, Freda?"

"They were possessed too. They started to attack me, but I managed to teleport away. For some reason they must not have tried following me." I was silent. That seemed almost too easy, it made me wonder if anyone else had managed to escape.

"You know," Freda spoke up after a moment, "when you evolve into your final form, it's tradition to change your name, as a sort of passage into adulthood." I looked at her. I had forgotten that tradition. "From now on I've decided to be called Star. You probably didn't change yours, huh? I heard Mew call you Julian."

I shook my head. "You're right." I thought for a moment. "I think I'd like to be called Stun."

"Stun? Why Stun?"

I shrugged. "It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? I mean, other pokémon will certainly be stunned when they see that I can transform. Besides, why Star?"

Star ignored the question and turned away. After a couple of seconds, I began to sense that she was flustered. "You know... I've always really liked you, Stun. Even when we were having our stupid fights when we were kids. I thought you were brave."

I looked at her with surprise. After a couple of seconds I replied, "Well... I... I actually really like you, too, Star."

Star smiled and laid back down. "Goodnight, Stun."

I looked away from her and up at the stars. I slowly laid down and closed my eyes. "Goodnight, Star."


	6. The Metaphysical Pool

The next morning, I was awakened by a startled yell from Mew. "Julian! Girl-who's-name-I-forget! Quick, wake up!" I immediately bolted upright, startled, while Star was a bit slower to move. It looked like the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, and I wondered how much sleep we had actually gotten.

She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and mumbled, "Call me Star."

"No time!" Mew cried, "I just received a distress call!" Without any further explanation, she grabbed the both of us and teleported us to a large garden with trees, stone paths, and ponds. In the center of this beautiful, park-like area was a large pool of water with a blue orb with swirling patterns embedded in a pedestal sticking out of the middle. Above this pool, a blue and white pokémon floated in midair, his eyes completely black. A swirling vortex of darkness surrounded him.

"Oh, no," Mew whispered, looking at the scene with horror. "They got Latios."

Latios hadn't seemed to notice us, he was instead focused on another floating pokémon that looked very similar to him, but was red rather than blue.

"Latias," Latios was saying, "sister, there should be no fighting between us. Come, join me, do not fight the darkness." As he said this, a small tendril of the darkness shot forward and tried to grab Latias, but she must have been extremely quick because she dodged it nimbly.

"You are _not_ my brother." She opened her mouth and unleashed a hyper beam, but the darkness surrounding him shot forward and somehow became solid, deflecting the blow like a shield.

"I'm sorry you feel that way." Latios then glanced behind him, at us. "Oh, look at this. Mew has come to try and save the day. We've been wondering where you were. Three legendaries to join us in one day?"

"You wish," Mew mumbled, focusing on him intently. I nodded and raised my arms in a defensive stance, my blades extending instinctually.

Latios gestured with his arms, and a huge wave of darkness surged towards us. We would have been finished right then and there if Mew hadn't quickly raised a pink bubble around the three of us.

"Oof," she grunted, focusing her energy. "This stuff is pretty tough." As she said that, small hairline fractures began to spread across the bubble's surface. "Uh oh."

I'm not quite sure how I did it - maybe dying and coming back really _had_ helped me somehow, or maybe the gravity of the situation made me push myself further than I had before. But I remembered what Mew had said before we had met Articuno, " _I don't think the darkness could have gotten to her, nothing much could survive in here."_

I clenched my teeth and focused everything I had, and it was almost like I had felt something crack inside of me. My body began to glow as my bladed arms changed to wings, blue plumage began to coat my body, and I began to grow.

"Aw, what the _heck,_ " Mew groaned as she saw that I was expanding. She clenched her teeth and forced the bubble to grow to compensate.

When the transformation was over, I opened my eyes as an almost exact copy of Articuno. I felt a disturbing cold and unfamiliar swirling of icy energy in my chest, but it was not unpleasant.

I opened my beak and unleashed the most powerful ice beam attack I think I'd ever seen. It instantly shattered the bubble protecting us, which would have been really bad if the darkness wasn't actually freezing solid. Within moments, the dark swirling energy around us became nothing more than a scary and pointy ice statue.

Mew and Star stared at the end result, their mouths agape.

"Wow… turns out the darkness is freezable." With that, Mew floated up to me and immediately smacked me in the face. "Julian, that was _completely_ reckless! You're lucky your hunch paid off, or else we'd _all_ be mindless puppets right now!"

I awkwardly used a wing (how do birds cope with these things) to rub the spot where I had been smacked. "You're right, master. Sorry about that. It looked like your bubble was breaking and I wasn't really sure what to do."

Mew harrumphed and crossed her arms. "Yeah, well, like I said, you're lucky." She glanced away and mumbled something like, "Also, super impressive that you just transformed into a legendary pokémon, but still."

I was about to respond, but I noticed a yellow energy started to seep through the ice behind Mew. With a yelp, Star jumped up and grabbed her and I, teleporting us a few feet away, outside of the center of pointy-icy-land. Where we had been standing moments before was now scorched from a hyper beam attack.

We looked to Latios, who was quivering with anger. Without a word, he grabbed the blue orb from the pedestal in the middle of the pool and turned to glare at us.

"We will meet again." With that, he disappeared in a flash of light.

After a few moments of silence, I slowly concentrated on changing back to my normal form. I shuddered and felt weak, almost like my body had had trouble containing the power of Articuno.

Latias floated over to us, and Mew touched her forehead. "Latias, are you alright?"

She nodded in response. "Thank you for coming, I was afraid no one had gotten my distress call. Any longer, and you might have been too late." She then turned to me. "Who might this be?"

Mew puffed her chest out proudly. "This here is my newest student, Julian. Isn't it cool how he just became a legendary and saved the day? All because of my teachings, I'm sure."

I cleared my throat. "Actually, if you don't mind, I'd prefer to be called Stun from now on."

Latias smiled and bowed her head to me. "Well thank you, Stun, you really did save the day." She glanced at Mew. "Mew, he wouldn't happen to be…?"

Mew dropped her proud grin as her expression turned more serious. She nodded. "Yup, it's him, alright. I'm, like, ninety-seven percent sure. The one from the prophecy."

Latios nodded back and looked back to me. "Young gallade, I have a reward for you. Have you ever heard of the Metaphysical Pool?"

"Um… no." I shook my head."

"That doesn't surprise me." She smiled kindly as she gestured to the serene pool behind her and the pedestal that was now missing its orb. "I'm sure Mew has told you that you are the subject of a prophecy she divined nearly one hundred years ago."

Mew nodded. "It was the world's first future sight."

"Around that same time," Latias continued, "a group of nine long-forgotten psychic legendary pokémon came together and sacrificed themselves. Their immense power formed this pool. That's when my brother and I were born. We were assigned by Arceus to guard it. No one has entered it, only the one who was prophesied to save the world would be allowed. And now it's time."

"Wow…" As I walked towards the pool the water, which had seemed as smooth as glass before, seemed to ripple at my presence. I turned back to the three of them. "Really?"

Latias nodded. "Take your time. We shall let you have your peace." Latias and Mew floated slowly away, and Star gave me one last smile before following them.

I turned back to the pool and tugged at the straps of the weighted clothes on my chest, which felt like a part of my body by now. I was struck by how light I suddenly felt with them gone.

I leaned forward, looking down through the water. It rippled some more, but I could see that the water was completely clear. This close to it, I could feel a something drawing me in.

Many times afterwards I've tried to describe the feeling of being in the Metaphysical Pool, but I never could do it justice. My skin felt as though it were vibrating as waves of psychic power assaulted my brain. I simultaneously felt as if I was falling apart and yet was finally whole for the first time. I was floating in the clearest, most relaxing and purified water in existence, and yet my very soul was imploding.

Afterwards, I felt completely invincible.

I was still riding this high as Mew and the others floated back to me. Mew whistled, sizing me up.

"Well you certainly look and feel stronger."

My eyes felt as though they were glowing with energy as my brain was still trying to soak everything up.

"How do you feel?"

I stared at the three of them, they seemed to be pretty impressed with the sudden jump of power. I glanced behind me at the pool I had just stepped out of. It felt like normal water now.

"I feel… incredible," I finally said. I looked at Mew and felt a sudden urge. "Master... I would like to battle you."

She didn't really seem surprised. "Well, of course, if you want. If you win, though, you won't really be able to call yourself my student anymore. You'll be free to do whatever you want."

I nodded, and we started.


	7. Graduating from Mewniversary

Mew threw a beam of psychic energy at me, but I teleported behind her and unleashed a leaf blade attack. The leaf slashed through the air and cut Mew across the chest, leaving a long slash, and a trickle of deep red blood.

"Heh," Mew chuckled, pain evident on her face. "Pretty good, disciple, I guess I should have expected that you'd be going all out."

Mew instantly transformed into a huge red dragon-like pokémon. "Charizard," Mew explained, "one of my favorite forms."

I frowned, glancing over the form Mew had taken. It was quite obviously a fire-type. I quickly dodged a wave of flames and concentrated when I came to a stop, focusing on becoming a pokémon I had often seen near my tribe, a sudowoodo. I found the transformation to be extremely smooth and easy this time.

I quickly pushed forward and slammed my strange circular, green-fingered fist into her muzzle. She yelped in response and unleashed another wave of flames at me, but I was able to easily shrug it off thanks to my newly rocky body. I growled slammed my head against hers in a powerful headbutt. As she was recoiling from the attack, I swiftly changed forms again, this time into a golduck. Before she could recover, I doused her with as powerful a water gun attack as I could muster, causing her to audibly yell in pain.

She growled at me and changed back to her normal form, picking me up telepathically and slamming me into the ground repeatedly. Somehow, while undergoing massive amounts of pain from being slammed around so much, I was able to transform back to my regular form as well and managed to stop myself.

She glared at me and thrusted her hand forward, and I suddenly felt a powerful psychic attack hitting my brain. Instinctively I did the same thing, thrusting my hand forward and attacking her with as much power as I could.

If the attacks had been visible, there would have been an epic struggle between two clashing forces, inching back and forth between the two of us. As it is, all Latias and Star could see was us just glaring and pointing at each other for a few moments.

Eventually, my attack won and smashed into Mew, causing her to fly back into a tree.

She was quick to get up, and I expected a retaliation, but instead she crossed her arms and smiled at me. "Hmph. Good job, you've gotten really powerful, Stun. Fine, I concede defeat." I grinned and was about to respond, but Mew continued, "It's sad to say, but you're no longer my student, you've surpassed me at an unbelievable rate. What're you going to do now, since you've graduated my class?"

I glanced at Star and grinned. "I'm going to go rescue my tribe."

"Well, be careful, and make sure to take every precaution to not let yourself be taken by the darkness. I'll continue to go to legendaries and ask for their help, can I count on you to be there when the time comes?"

I looked back to Mew and nodded. "Of course."

...

Star and I were in Sinnoh and had heard a rumor that our tribe was causing chaos at the peak of Mount Coronet. I smiled at Star and she smiled back. We were kind of a couple now, to put our relationship in human terms. We had just teleported to the base of the mountains.

I craned my head to look up at the peak. We were under a sheer cliff. "You think we can get to them by nightfall?"

She shook her head. "Probably not. It would take forever to climb to the top. Maybe we could teleport there?"

I shook my head. "If they're really up there, the concentrated psychic energy would make it too tricky to teleport all the way up there safely."

"So… we camp down here for the night?" I nodded, and set up a makeshift tent with my power.

...

The next morning I was awoken by the morning sun on my face. I turned to my left and saw Star. I smiled and slowly got up, trying not to disturb her. I walked outside the tent and looked back up at the mountaintop, considering the best approach to reach the top. I heard a rustle behind me and turned around to see Star walking out of the tent.

She smiled at me. "Hey... you're up."

I smiled back. "Yep." I looked back to the mountain. "You ready to start?" I asked, jumping onto a rock that was sticking out of the cliff-face's surface.

I hopped from rock to rock as Star slowly levitated upwards. After about an hour of climbing, I was still going strong, surprised that I wasn't getting very tired. Eventually we reached a sort of flat area that looked like it had been carved out of the side of the mountain. Camping out there was a small herd of elekid, electabuzz, and electivire. They glared at me, and I noticed that they were surrounded by a black aura. One of the biggest electivire yelled at my presence and raised his arm as a lightning bolt shot out and almost hit me. I raised my own arm and used a psychic attack that threw him through the air. He slammed into a boulder, but didn't seem to have been fazed by it, he simply growled and got back up. The other twenty or so electubuzz and elekids growled at me as well. Just as I was about to attack, a loud screech sounded through the air and Zapdos appeared flew up to our level.

Zapdos glared at the herd. "Dudes, do you have _any_ idea how annoying it is to fly here all the way from Kanto? I mean, how the heck did you guys even get all the way out here, on this dang mountain?"

The electivire that had attacked me first shook his head. "We don't take orders from you anymore, Zapdos. Attack!"

As one, the entire group sent forth a combined electric attack that bombarded Zapdos. I'm almost completely sure that any other pokémon would have been completely fried, but he seemed almost completely unfazed.

"Not cool, guys," Zapdos merely replied, noticing me. "Hey, who're you? You aren't one of my guys."

I grinned. "It's me, Julian. I've actually evolved and graduated Mew's training class."

"Aw, sick, man, that's awesome!" He focused on Star. "Who's this, your lady friend?"

"Pretty much," I replied, throwing up a barrier that caused a lightning bolt to be deflected from us. "Any chance we can talk after these guys aren't a threat anymore?"

"Pssh," he scoffed, "a threat? These guys ain't a threat as long as I'm around." With that, Zapdos flapped his wings once and the entire group was hit with a blast of air so powerful they all flew backwards into the side of the mountain, landing on one another in a big pile.

"Check this out," he exclaimed with a wink. He looked up to the sky and let loose a lightning bolt so powerful I could feel it even as it retreated up into the sky. There was silence for a brief moment, and the sky actually began to darken as thick clouds formed out of nothingness. The bolt shot back down at lightspeed, crashing into the group of electric-types with a roar so loud I think I became temporarily deafened.

As I watched, what resembled black steam began to rise from the many members of the electabuzz family and dissipated into thin air.

"Yeah, now _that's_ what I call efficiency!" Zapdos exclaimed, looking proud of himself.

If I hadn't been able to sense the life in them, I would have almost been completely sure that they were dead. But they began to groan in pain and sit up, one by one.

"Ah, don't worry about them." Zapdos must have seen the expression on my face. "They'll be absolutely fine. Good thing they're electric-types, almost anyone else would've been reduced to ash."

"Yeah… I bet." Star piped up, looking worriedly at the Electric Titan that floated above us.

"Well, anyway, sorry my gang bothered you two so much. I'll go ahead and leave ya to whatever it is you guys were doin'. Gonna go ahead and take these guys home… somehow."

I laughed and scratched the back of my head. "Yeah, good luck with that. Thanks for taking care of them."

Zapdos nodded in response, and I transformed into a charizard. Zapdos's sudden arrival made me realize I had been stupid to not just fly up the mountain sooner. I grabbed ahold of Star, flapped my huge and powerful wings, and we were off towards the top.


	8. Stun vs Songblade

After a couple of seconds, we arrived at the summit to see a huge herd of ralts, gardevoir, kirlia, and gallade. The entirety of my herd was huddled around makeshift campsites, like an army waiting for the order to advance.

The moment we arrived, all eyes locked on me. I guess even if they weren't able to sense others, the mostly-orange body of a charizard was terrible camouflage against the mostly-white peak of Mount Coronet.

As I landed, one of the biggest gallade, who I recognized as Sheath, and old friend of my father's, approached me. The wave of dirty looks from them all was a bit unnerving as I set Star down.

"State your business here," he ordered with a snarl.

Rather than replying, I transformed back to my normal form and raised my blades in a defensive stance.

Once I had emerged a gallade, Sheath's blades elongated as he looked me up and down. "You seem somewhat… familiar." After a brief moment, he grinned. "Ah, your psychic pattern. You're someone that my host knows. Julian, if I am not correct?"

I glared at him. "You're going to leave my herd alone, darkness. Or else I'll beat you out of every one of them."

Sheath seemed unimpressed. "Well, well, well. How interesting, to see you here. Although, I suppose it makes sense. Your father _did_ tell everyone that you had gone off to train with the great legendary pokémon, Mew."

From the crowd behind him, an old gallade with scars all over his body emerged. I recognized him immediately as Signar, the leader of our council.

"I don't see the need for all this fuss, Julian. Or would you prefer Stun?" He had a sly grin on his face. "Why fight us, really? You could join us instead. We're having a great time, truly. The darkness grants us great power, and we just want to share this gift with the world."

Star crossed her arms. "You expect us to believe that? Sheath here literally just referred to himself as a _host._ Sounds more like some sort of parasite infecting your brains."

Signar gave Sheath a quick, annoyed look. "Yes, I can see why that might deter you." He shrugged. "Oh well, I should have known that wouldn't work. Worth a shot though."

He turned to the crowd behind him and nodded. From them emerged another gallade who I immediately recognized as my father.

"Songblade? I think it's time you take care of your son here."

A chill ran through my body as I watched my father approach. There was no hint of love or recognition in his eyes, just cold anger. Seeing him this way made my own sense of anger emerge.

He came to a halt beside Sheath and Signar and made his blades extend. "I want you to know that your father is quite upset, he's currently screaming to be let free." He broke out into a grin as he raised his blades into an attack stance. "I'm sure he'll be even more upset as he watches himself kill you."

I glared at him. "Don't worry, dad. I'll get you outta there."

There was a brief moment where no one moved, even the wind seemed to have stopped. Then he ran forward, intending to slice me open. I dodged swiftly and brought my fist up to punch him in the stomach. Then I smashed my head into his, causing him to stumble back.

There was an expression of shock on his face, but it was quickly covered by a smirk. "I must say, I'm surprised. Seems you must've learned a thing or two."

He teleported behind me, and I jumped forward, narrowly dodging a slash that would have opened up my back. I turned my jump into a roll, and I turned around to face him. I was acutely aware of Star and the huge group of psychic pokémon staring at us.

He opened his mouth, shooting forward a powerful hyper beam attack, which I hadn't expected, my dad would have never been able to perform an attack that powerful before. The blast pushed me back a few feet and caused my torso and face to suffer minor burns, but I could barely feel them from the amount of adrenaline pumping through my veins.

Before the blast had even fully dissipated, my father teleported right behind me stabbed me through the back, causing the tip of his blade to protrude out of my chest. My breath hitched as I looked down at it, right beside the red protrusion every gallade had. My vision swam as he pulled his blade back out, and I fell forward, my blood staining the snowy ground.

I made out the sound of my father chuckling. "Oh, if only you could hear the screams in my head right now. Looks like this is the end for you."

Suddenly, everything seemed to slow down. There was complete and utter silence, and the pain faded away. I glanced to see Star's expression, aghast, as she watched me die. I turned to see my father and my entire herd, watching triumphantly.

" _Oh, no you don't."_ A voice echoed. I looked up to see a floating, shifting mass of glowing blue energy. " _We didn't sacrifice ourselves so that you could fail so easily."_

"What… who are you?"

The mass grew slightly bigger. " _We are the ones. The legendary psychic pokémon that gave our lives so that we may give power to the prophesied one when the time came. Do you think we would just give ourselves over to death and slumber for one hundred years, only to be awoken and killed by a common gallade? No."_

"Does this mean I've failed?"

" _No, Stun. You are going to get up, and you are going to prevail. We better not find you in this situation again."_ I could feel a calm sternness emanating from the energy, almost like an agitated parent.

The energy glowed brightly and waves of light washed over me, and the wound in my chest closed.

" _Alright, are you ready?"_

I nodded in response, and suddenly everything began to move around me again and the energy was gone.

"What in the name of Arceus…." My father was flabbergasted as I stood up and faced him. The wound was gone and my eyes were glowing with powerful psychic energy.

"Sorry, darkness. I'm going to need you to get out of my dad."

I swiftly punched forwarded, my fist aided with psychic energy, and he flew backwards, almost off the mountain. He had managed to stop himself by grabbing onto a pointed boulder that was jutting out of the side, close to the edge of the summit.

I calmly walked over and looked down at him. "Come on, now," I said, extending my hand to him. "Take my hand."

I expected to see fear or some sense of self-preservation, but instead my father looked up at me with a confident smirk.

"I still win." With that, he released the boulder and fell.

"No!" I tried to grab him with my psychic powers, but he was repelling my efforts. I jumped after him and transformed back into a charizard as I fell. I flapped my wings, trying to catch up to him, but it was too late. He slammed into a couple of boulders on the way down and I felt his life energy leave him even before he reached the ground.

I stopped in mid-air, staring down at his corpse as it tumbled all the way to the base of the mountain in agony. "No…."

I roared and turned back up, pushing myself vigorously back to the top. I roared again and spit a wave of flames at the crowd, but it bounced off of a barrier.

"Well, perhaps it's best we make our leave," Signar said, gesturing to the group behind him. Without a moment's hesitation, the entire group disappeared, teleporting as one.

I slowly transformed back to my normal form and fell to my knees, a sense of desperation flooding me. "My dad…."

My tears fell to the snow as Star floated behind me and placed her hand on my back.

* * *

 _Author Note: Kinda interesting to think that this point is basically where the first chapter of the original_ Stun _fanfic ended. But I rewrite it a bit, add a few new scenes and story, and I stretched it out into 8 chapters!_

 _As always, feel free to review if you enjoyed or have any constructive criticism or anything! Have an awesome day!_


	9. Introducing Eevee Isle

The cold wind blustered around us as Star and I stood in front of a mound of snowy dirt. I had just finished burying my father.

"I'm so sorry, Stun," Star whispered, taking my hand.

I was silent for a few moments, unsure of what to say. "He… I just wish…." I took a deep breath to steady myself. "He wasn't himself in the end. The torture he must have gone through, unable to control himself…."

Star didn't reply, but I hadn't really expected her to. After all, what was there to say?

"We need to keep fighting," I declared, a sense of revenge beginning to boil up. "This can't continue to happen. We need to find the source of this stuff and put an end to it once and for all."

"That's what you were doing before, isn't it?" I turned to Star. "When you were with Mew, I mean. You were going to the legendaries and recruiting them for the upcoming war."

I nodded. "Yeah, I was."

"Maybe coming here was a mistake. Maybe we shouldn't have gone after our tribe, we should have continued going after legendaries."

I looked back down at the makeshift grave. "You're probably right. I just wanted to know what happened to our tribe, our friends and families…. I had thought that with what I had learned from Mew and from the Metaphysical Pool I would have been strong enough to save them…. I was so foolish, there were so many of them, there's no way we would have been able to defeat and rescue them all."

Star nodded. "Maybe we can do both, you know? We can go to the legendaries and you can probably learn something from each of them. After all, you have this important prophecy about you, who knows what you can do? If you can learn how to transform from Mew, I bet you can learn all sorts of things."

I grabbed her hands and smiled. "You're exactly right! I shouldn't chase around other pokémon trying to free them, even if I was successful the darkness is still out there infecting others constantly. I should focus all of my efforts on getting stronger to prepare to take down the source and free everyone once and for all."

Star nodded. "Exactly. So, where should we begin?"

I was about to answer, but was cut short as I sensed a human emerging from the woods behind us. Star and I turned towards him, tensing.

The human had shoulder-length black hair, alabaster skin, and green eyes. He was dressed appropriately for the weather, with a thick red coat, black gloves, green hiking boots, and black wooly pants.

He spotted us and seemed to sigh, muttering something that was impossible to hear across the distance and over the wind. He gestured for us to come closer, but we decided to ignore that command.

I could sense him become steadily frustrated at our lack of obedience and began trudging over to us.

"Um… do you think we should just teleport away?" Star asked, becoming uneasy.

"He hasn't attacked us yet. I'm curious as to why not."

"Who cares why not?" Star countered. "Humans are always so unpredictable, he probably just wants to confuse us and then capture us."

I nodded. "You're probably right." With that, I grabbed her hand.

The human was just close enough to say, "Hey, wait-" before we teleported away.

* * *

Star and I appeared at the outskirts of Lavender Town, since it was the first place I could think of to escape to. I figured we could regroup once we got there and decide where to go next, but the moment we arrived we were hit with a massive heat wave.

"Whoa," Star coughed, beginning to sweat immediately. "What's going on?"

I raised my arm to shield my eyes, because it felt like the sun a thousand times more powerful than it normally was. "I dunno, it's so _hot._ "

" _Stun, stay where you are, you're moving around too much._ " I heard a grumpy voice ring out in my head, and I immediately recognized it as Mewtwo. " _Seriously, I was on my way to Sinnoh and now all of a sudden you've jumped halfway across the planet."_

" _Sorry,_ " I replied telepathically. " _It's been an eventful day._ "

Mewtwo appeared in front of us. " _Here, take my hand before any humans spot us._ "

Star and I complied, and suddenly we found ourselves on the sandy shore of an island, with a thick cover of trees behind us.

Mewtwo looked at us with his stern gaze. " _Mew asked me to find you. The threat is getting more and more dangerous._ " He turned to Star. " _I'm sorry, but who are you?_ "

"Oh… I'm Star."

I took her hand and replied, "She's my mate."

Mewtwo raised an eyebrow (I mean, he would have if he had one), and looked Star up and down. " _I see. Well, congratulations, you really must have worked fast._ "

"What do you mean?"

Mewtwo's eyes widened. " _Oh. Um, did you not know? It's pretty easy to sense…._ " He glanced at Star, who blushed.

"Um, Stun… It's been a really hectic day, so I haven't really had the chance to say anything, but… I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant."

My jaw dropped and I looked down at her belly. There were no visible signs, but of course there wouldn't be, it hadn't even been a full day yet. Pokémon pregnancies were extremely quick compared to, say, humans, and I could definitely sense something very small and alive inside of Star. The beginnings of our egg.

"I'm… going to be… a dad?"

Star nodded. "Probably another day or two and I'll give birth to the egg. Then maybe a week or so and we'll have a child."

I let go of her hand and put my hands to the side of my head. Today was such a roller coaster of emotions, first I fight my father to the death and now this….

" _Calm down, Stun,_ " Mewtwo intervened. " _I understand these are trying times, but that's partially why I brought us here._ "

"Here? Where is here?"

" _Mew asked me to find you to get some help, but she also mentioned you would probably be traveling with a gardevoir. That's why I brought us here. This is a safe place that she can stay while you and I go out and find other legendaries._ "

Star looked behind us, to the trees. "What is this place? Why is it so safe?"

" _This is a remote island far off the coast of Sinnoh. No humans and very few pokémon know of its existence. It's called Eevee Isle. Generally, only pokémon that evolve from eevee are welcome, but with my endorsement they should allow you to stay here until we return._ "

"I just found out that my mate is pregnant," I interrupted, still having trouble taking in the news. "And you want me to leave her?"

Mewtwo's permanently-stern expression softened a bit. " _Unfortunately, yes. We don't exactly have time to debate this, nor do we have the time for you to retire happily with your mate and child. There is too much work to be done._ "

Star took my head into her hands and made me face her. "It's okay, Stun. You need to go. After you save the world, you can come back and we'll all be together."

Mewtwo's gaze flickered to the setting sun. " _We really must be quick. I'll need to introduce you two to the council of the leading tribe and convince them to let Star stay._ " He padded past us and began walking into the forest. " _Follow me._ "


	10. A Rude Welcome

_Author Note: Howdy, everyone! I hope everyone's enjoying the story so far! In this chapter, toxeons and uraneons are introduced, the custom poison and steel-type eeveelutions, respectively. Toxeons were created by FuriousDedenne, and uraneons were created by my friend, Chris._

The two of us followed after Mewtwo carefully, taking in the beautiful scenery around us. The trees were extremely thick, their canopy allowing only a tiny amount of the evening's sunlight through. It was beginning to get dark, but luckily we were all psychics, and able to see our paths without normal eyesight.

We moved in silence, the crunching of twigs and leaves underneath our feet the only sound, for what must have been a good ten minutes before the dense trees began to loosen. We found ourselves standing in the treeline, staring out at a clearing with all sorts of quadruped pokémon, many of whom I did not recognize. I could make out flareon, umbreon, espeon, jolteon, and all manner of normal pokémon that would evolve from an eevee, but there were several foreign pokémon.

They were all going about their business, some were sleeping around a central fire, others were sparring, and others still were tending to a field of berries. To our left was a series of dens and the ground was covered in thick grass and flowers.

I was about to say something, when I spotted an espeon's tail twitch and its head whipped around to stare in our direction.

A sigh sounded off in my head. " _Of course, I should've known better than to think that we could make a subtle entrance,_ " Mewtwo said as he stepped forward into the clearing. I glanced at Star and shrugged and followed him, the two of us standing on either side.

Eeveelutions of all kinds stared at us as we made our presence known, and we could hear them murmuring amongst themselves. I could sense their caution and heard their whispers of outsiders.

"Should we-"

" _Don't do anything,_ " Mewtwo interrupted, not looking at me. " _We will wait until their council arrives. Don't approach them._ " I nodded and stayed silent, watching them watch us.

After a few moments, a pokémon emerged from the crowd, padding towards us. This pokémon was, in my opinion, very pretty in a somewhat dangerous way. Its fur was white as snow, with flecks of purple standing out from the base of its neck to its tail. Its tail was long and thin, but seemingly well-muscled, with a green spike protruding from the tip. Its ears were also quite long, and the insides of the ears and its nose being a dark purple. Around its neck was a sort of purple fog that shifted with it as it approached us, and I noticed the other eevee evolutions keeping their distance. As it came closer, I noticed it was studying us with an almost angry glint in its dark red eyes.

She came to a stop in front of us and sat on her haunches, looking Star and I up and down before turning to Mewtwo. "Well, if it isn't Mewtwo, the _fake_ legendary," she said in a distinctly female voice. I was surprised by the amount of venom in her tone.

Mewtwo's eye twitched, but his telepathic voice remained level. " _How wonderful to see you again, Pique. Of course they would send you to come and collect us._ "

"Actually, I volunteered." Her maw broke out into a smirk.

" _Indeed._ " Mewtwo crossed his arms. " _We would like to speak to the Forest Clan's council._ "

Pique glanced at the two of us again. "I'm sure you would. And who would these two be?"

I could sense agitation rolling off of Mewtwo, and I noticed more than a few nearby espeon in the crowd with worried expressions. " _All will be revealed when I speak to the council._ "

Pique stared at me and licked her chops. "Well, you can never be too careful." At her words, the wispy purple fog around her neck flew towards Star and I, covering our faces.

I didn't even have time to yell out before darkness clouded my vision and I felt myself collapse to the ground.

* * *

The first thing I noticed as I began to regain consciousness was that everything hurt. My body and joints ached, my head was pounding, and my throat felt like I hadn't had any water in weeks. I struggled to open my eyes, but even that was a huge strain. I could hear muffled voices, but couldn't make out any individual words.

"What…" I managed to get out. My vision slowly began to clear, and I saw that I was sitting in a snug cage made of some sort of bamboo, or something similar.

"Oh, look, he's waking up," I heard a nearby voice say. I struggled to look beyond the bars to see a group of around fourteen or so quadrupedal pokémon, some familiar and some not. I noticed that the one who had spoken up was Pique, the one who had knocked me out in the first place. We were in a dark cave with a central fire blazing strongly.

Standing near my cage, facing them, was Mewtwo. A couple feet away from him was another cage similar to mine which housed Star. She was still knocked out cold.

" _I would again like to emphasize,_ " Mewtwo said to the crowd calmly, " _that rendering my companions unconscious was completely unnecessary. We are here in peace._ "

Pique glared at Mewtwo, then turned back to the crowd. "And _again_ , I am not going to apologize. The moment this group touched down on our shores, the espeon could sense creatures of great power were nearby." I noticed that there was a lone espeon in the group who nodded. "I felt that it was my duty to subdue the threat until we knew what was going on." One of her ears flicked with annoyance. "Besides, it could've been worse. I very easily could have _killed_ them-"

"Alright, that is enough, thank you." A new pokémon stepped forward, the fire illuminating her. This, too, was a pokémon I had never seen before.

Her torso, tail, and one of her legs were either covered or were made of what appeared to be solid grey metal plating. In the center of her sternum was what appeared to be some sort of small window that emitted a glowing yellow-green light. The rest of her body that wasn't covered in metal was covered in a thick metallic blue coat of fur. Her dark eyes shifted from Pique to Mewtwo.

"On behalf of the Forest Clan, I apologize for the attack against your friends." Her voice was level and had a note of sincerity to it.

I could sense Mewtwo's agitation falling away. " _I understand, Silver,_ " he replied, ignoring Pique, who was fuming with anger. " _I realize that some other members of your council are… rather difficult._ "

Silver grinned as Pique, who was giving off rage in waves, stepped away from Mewtwo and into the group, settling beside a flareon and umbreon.

"Why don't you tell us why you've come, and who these two pokémon you've brought with you are."

Mewtwo calmly explained the situation with the darkness, the fact that I was a part of some prophecy, our plan to gather the other legendary pokémon, and finally ended with requesting that Star be left here for safekeeping.

At that, the group of pokémon began murmuring amongst themselves. After a few moments of unintelligible noise, steam erupted from between the metal plates in Silver's torso and everyone immediately clammed up.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Mewtwo, you've given us much to discuss. We've never had an outsider stay with us for any lengthy period of time. However, we have no reason not to trust you and I believe you when you speak of the gravity of the situation."

"Now, hold on!" A vaporeon stepped forward, stopping beside Silver, next to the fire. "You can't really be considering this, can you, Silver? Like you said, we've _never_ had any outsiders stay with us before, and for good reason! Only legendary pokémon are supposed to even know that our island _exists_!"

Silver turned to the vaporeon. "Valid point, Tsunami. And I'm sure there are a few more council members who would agree with you," at that, I saw a few nodding heads. Silver turned back to Mewtwo. "Which is why the council and I are going to discuss this amongst ourselves for a moment before coming to a final decision. Mewtwo, feel free to stay in the usual spot with your friends while we discuss this for the night. I'll come and talk to you in the morning."

Mewtwo nodded and thanked her. He turned to me and nodded, and I pushed with my psychic abilities, breaking the door to my cage open. Mewtwo did the same for Star and he lifted her up, placing her in his arms and I followed him out of the cave.

After leaving behind the claustrophobic cavern, I was surprised to see that it was very much nighttime, the moon high in the sky.

"How long was I out?"

Mewtwo shrugged. " _About an hour or two._ " He turned towards a strange temple that was a short distance away. " _Walk with me, I'm sure you have questions._ "

"I do, yeah. First off, why were there so many pokémon that I've never seen before?"

" _Eevee are an extremely unique pokémon with the ability to adapt their DNA to any situation. As such, there are many types of pokémon that evolve from eevee that humans have not been able to unlock or encounter just yet. For example, Pique is a toxeon, a poison-type evolution. Silver is a uraneon, the steel-type. In order to achieve either evolution, an eevee has to undergo extreme circumstances. So they're not all that common, and are mostly found here, on Eevee Isle._ "

"I see…." We had passed into the treeline, and I noticed a distinct lack of other life. I guessed it was too late, everyone was probably sleeping. "What's the deal with their council, were they all members? Seems like a huge council, if you ask me."

" _It probably would, to you. With most pokémon clans, if they even have a council, there are only a few members. Here, every evolution of eevee is given a voice. Silver, however, is the overall leader. She'll have plenty of difficulty convincing her council to let Star stay, I'm sure. But I've seen her do more difficult things._ "

I looked at the temple as we approached it. "What is _this_ place? It looks almost like it was made by humans."

He shook his head. " _This was actually created by Lugia. Oddly enough, Lugia is the one that created this whole island and is their main protector. Every year, Lugia returns for a sort of festival, and everyone celebrates. This is where he stays, but whenever another legendary visits, we'll stay here as well."_

We walked up a short flight of stairs and came face-to-face with a huge set of doors. They must have been large enough for a pokémon like Lugia to fit through comfortable, I guessed. The doors had strange symbols the I didn't recognize.

Mewtwo tilted his head towards the doors, and they rumbled tremendously as they slid slightly apart, leaving an opening big enough for us to slip through.

" _We'll stay here for the night. I think we could all use the rest._ "

I nodded and the doors slid shut behind us, leaving us in darkness.


End file.
